Tunisia Wins First Game in New Kits

I too always wanted a senegalese Nike or adidas jersey but when I see what countries Adidas has (Nigeria, South Africa, Burundi, Eritrea, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritania, Seychelles and Swaziland.) and how little exposure they’ve been given, I’m content with Puma. I mean cameroon and Senegal have had ads with their top players and their jerseys are actually sold in stores. So are Tunisia, Egypt and Ghana’s. Can you tell me the last time you saw a mauritanian jersey?
By the way I like the new jersey designs. And I guess the Cote d’Ivoire orange ones will be the dopest.

Posted from  France

The only PUMA kit that where special was the 2004 Tunisia kit , the other ones are all the samen only the coulours are different, Take a nice Lotto kit That would be Retro.
The game itself was poor, Namibia is not senegal ore an other strong country, Tunisia should play far more attacking and would need midfielders that just take a shot outside the 16- box ,slim benachour ???
But Tunisians are always happy with crappy wins , and now they think they would be ready for Ghana 2008, Like the shame fool peformance of the Worldcup 2006 germany.
On the midfield they made stupid combinations and diidn”t use cros-passing ore deep-bals , right to the strikkers, I gues its a lack of technical passing. And they need to fasten the passing to eachother and not to many points. In the attack sometimes 2 players are next to each other with a distance of 3 ore 4 meters and still they pas ????? In stead of keeping the palying field wide at attack !!
And the goalkeeper of esperance sucks also kamel zaiem , rather get Slim Ben Achour back , and Hocine Ragued could also stay sleeping with his FC mons iN belgium.
The good thing is that Lemmerre tries to play some attacking football
What Tunisia need is a dutch coach !! Like Van Hannegem, they play 4-3-3
ore in the case of tunisia could be 4-4-2 , But with 3 attacking midfielders.

Posted from  Netherlands

The tunisian supporters isn’t good and the team would be playing much better if there were more of them. They should switch and play in Sousse or Sfax one time.

Posted from  Sweden

Sweden ? Nice girls Like the blondes

Posted from  Netherlands

Im not sure how those uniforms were approved. IF you look on the back, it looks like there is two layers of fabric, one that ends 2/3 of the way down. Also the fabric looks like the hottest possible fabric to be wearing not to mention the collar which i always hated in a kit.

Also if you look in the picture Rami has provided of the 8 kits of different African countries and you asked someone who didnt know which looks like it could be the tunisian kit, 4 of them would qualify, there is no originality.

Anyhow to the match, our defense wasnt challenged that much and the adversaries where pretty weak but that could be evidence of a hard working midfield, Nafti worked hard. I have a feeling between Tunisia and Austria Lemerre will put a stronger squad including some Etoile players like Chermiti and Ben Fredj. Im glad Yahia wont be playing, he cant control himself. I wanna See ben Fredj, he is a player that looks like he can stand up for himself , good size, good aggressive attitude, and effective on the wing.

As for Chikaoiu he looks so much greater playing for Zurich then Tunis, this is because, the Tunisian team has to surround him with a few more clever passers and some midfielders that can unlock the defense, I would like to see Chermiti start with him up front

The Namibia game provided Lemerre a chance to evaluate the players we dont see that often and guage the fitness of others we have seen like Dos Santos. Tunisia won, and maybe they can win VS AUstria.

Another not Morocco tied vs France, with some really brave play. Thats what it will take VS austria, a team Tunisia should beat on a good day.

Posted from  United States

Mass, you’re right about our jerseys at least being available in stores. Definitely a plus. The jerseys themselves aren’t bad but I’m really not a fan of the number font. It just looks wack to me. What do you think of it? Whatever, if we keep winning in it I’m sure the whole thing will grow on me. It’s far from catastrophic but I still like the old ones better. But you’re right, I’d rather have a Puma shirt that actually buyable than another one that is impossible to find. I wonder what the material on this new one is like. One thing about it that I definitely am a fan of is having it say “Tunis” in Arabic on the back of the collar. Looks pretty cool.

Moni, I agree with Skander in that the weather affected the fan turnout, which in turn affected the first half performance. I know that our boys are professionals and shouldn’t let things like that affect them but when you’re used to a certain kind of atmosphere and its not provided it’s hard to get up for a game. Plus since it was Namibia and not another big football powerhouse, they probably were thinking it wasn’t gonna be extremely difficult. Theres no proof to that but it’s a hypothesis. There’s a lot of psychological elements at play here. Still though, Namibia is qualified for the African Cup and that makes them legitimate opposition in my opinion. I understand your frustration in us not playing against bigger countries in the CAN build up. Honestly though, before the CAN that we won in 2004 we had some mediocre games and started kind of slow in our first one, only to gain steam and build confidence throughout the competition. Austria isn’t Holland or England but I view them as legit opposition as well. Although one could make an argument that playing them before an African cup doesn’t make too much sense. For me, any opportunity to see our boys compete is a good enough reason to watch and a decent opportunity to see how the team is gelling.

I think the federation is setting up friendlies against Mali and another African team that I can’t remember right now. Mali will be a good test, I’m pretty sure they beat us 1-0 last time we played so it will be interesting to see how that game goes if it materializes. As you said, this game wasn’t the highest quality but I’m always starved for Tunisian football since I live in the states and any chance I get to see our team play I usually walk away very happy. The Benachour question is a good one and one we have been asking (especially Massaer) on the blog for quite some time. I like his style but I think that Belaid and Chikhaoui are just as technically adept and can take over the playmaker position. That doesn’t mean that there’s no place for him in the team, it just means I don’t see him starting on it. The Benachour debate is on going and practically every Tunisian soccer fan has a different opinion about the kid.

You had mentioned a lack of long distance shooting but Belaid and Chikha both took shots from outside the box and Belaid came very close on two of his attempts. Long distance shooting has always been a problem in the team but if you look at the players we have at our disposal I know we have guys that can blast some rockets at goal: Mnari, Chikha, Belaid, Jemaa to name a few. Furthermore, I thought Belaid crossing ability was pretty damn good. He put a couple of corners right on people heads but the players at the end of them couldn’t put their headers on frame. Plus I’m pretty sure it’s him that found a wide open Dos Santos that wasn’t quick enough to get a touch on the ball to bring it down. If he had done that, he would have been clear through on goal and probably would have scored.

It’s funny you should mention a dutch coach because I was just telling Massaer the other day that I would love it if we had Guus Hiddink but I seriously doubt we could ever afford his salary. I like him because he has a history of taking mid level teams to the second round of world cups and having them overachieve. I’ve personally had enough of Lemerre, he’s lucky that the group of players at his disposal has improved.

Sorry my comment is so long and wordy, once I get started it’s hard to stop when theres so many issues to address. Thanks for the imput and ideas everyone, and please keep the comments coming. I love hearing people’s opinions about all of this. Hope the end of your weekend are going well.

Rami

Posted from  United States

Bman, interesting mention about the jerseys and the layering etc. I didn’t even notice that. We’ll see how that continues. Puma does have a history of putting out jerseys that make FIFA nuts, usually the Cameroon ones though…

I’d love to see Chermiti in the game against Austria in Santos’ place. And you’re right, Chikha still hasn’t been able to make a good transition from his displays in the swiss league to his play for Tunis. I really hope we can get the most out of him as he has the potential to be our most dangerous offensive weapon. I’m very happy Jemaa has recovered fully and hasn’t lost any of his trickery or pace. Over the past couple of months he’s been our leader on the field and has provided the most goals. Ben Fraj’s place on the other hand is not guaranteed as from what I’ve heard, his past outings with the national team were not as convincing as his amazing play for Etoile. The Austria game could provide some answers in this respect.

Posted from  United States

Hi folks!
What jerseys are talking about?
Is it something that i should be worried about?
thanks

Hi folks!
What jerseys are you talking about?
Is it something that i should be worried about?
thanks

I thought tunisia did ok against nambia, i don’t really get what lemerre is thinking. I don’t think he should let santos play because he was just too slow in the last game, and i think he should try playing jaidi in defence. Some etoile players playing will be good because they will have good team chemistry. I thought the goalkeeper was very good and they should use him, all the players last game looked good. Yahia shouldn’t of lost his temper at the last minute thought. hope to watch the game tommorow,

[...] By Rami I’d like to see us wearing Adidas one day. I think their jerseys are the classiest out there. We’ve come a long way from the days of Lotto and Uhlsport. I still have fond memories of those (South Africa 1996 etc. … tunisia.worldcupblog.org/group-h/tunisia-wins-first-game-in-new-kits.html [...]

hi guys!